Payment Processing Fraud Prevention in Your Online Store

If you operate an online store, you rely on your merchant account to handle the credit card processing of your customers. Your merchant account, paired with your shopping cart and payment gateway, help to ensure that the transaction is secure from beginning to end.

When we buy products or services online some of us don’t even consider the security of our information, as we rely on the merchant to protect us. In most cases, the integrity of the merchant’s data remains secure, but in the digital age potential for fraud is rampant. Are you taking appropriate measures to prevent credit card processing fraud in your online store?

Having the appropriate security measures in place will help prevent your customers’ information from being stolen and the reputation of your business being destroyed. Here are some security measures to consider:

Matching the billing address of the credit card to the location of the IP address is important. Of course you won’t know the exact physical address of the machine attached to the IP address, but you’ll at least have the city. A billing address and IP address distant from each other is a clue that something may not be right.

Sometimes thieves attempting to make purchases with stolen credit card numbers are smart enough to mask their IP addresses and use anonymous email addresses. A merchant that employs a server that checks for anonymous proxies and anonymous email accounts will prevent these attempts at fraud.

The best way to prevent credit card fraud on your site is to encrypt the data and route transactions through SSL (secure socket layer). Payment gateways offer this security. Never store credit card information on your servers. Even encrypted data can be vulnerable to hackers set on stealing credit card information. (Learn more about encryption here)

Make certain that all but the last four credit card numbers are blacked out or masked when sending order confirmation emails, invoices or packing slips. If a customer’s email is hacked, your failure to mask a credit card number could amplify their problems.

Merchants that are vigilant with their credit card processing services are far less likely to be the victim of a hacker’s attack. Keep your security measures a priority and you’ll be sure to avoid a disastrous situation for both your business as well as your customers.